Former Slave's Dream Lives On In California

July 04, 1993|By Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Daily News.

ALLENSWORTH, Calif. — Long before Martin Luther King Jr. articulated his dream of interracial harmony, Col. Allen Allensworth dreamed of creating a community governed and run by African-American landowners who could flex their economic muscle in post-slavery America.

For a brief period in a dusty California town that bears his name, it came to pass.

"Everybody had a plot of ground that was about two acres. We had 35 acres," said Gemelia Herring, 85, recalling the Allensworth of her youth as a bustling town filled with houses and businesses. "Water flowed continually from three artesian wells. We had alfalfa, grain, sugar beets, turkeys, ducks, whatever you wanted to keep."

Today, the empty plots of land in what has become Col. Allensworth State Historic Park hint at what this turn-of-the-century town must have been. From the entrance off a bleak stretch of California Highway 43 in Tulare County, 35 miles north of Bakersfield, a handful of buildings stand in the distance. The 245-acre park, which was established in 1976, has a visitors center in a cramped trailer. But the emptiness of the former farmland stands in contrast to the richness of its history as a self-sustaining African-American community.

"In its heyday, there were about 500 to 600 families," said George Finley, who heads Friends of Allensworth, a non-profit group committed to raising money to re-create Allensworth as a living-history tourist attraction.

"We envision the completed park as the town was laid out during Col. Allensworth's time," Finley said, noting his group is focusing on fund raising to offset cuts in state funding.

Public awareness of the park is growing, "but we're still kind of hidden away, a place you only know of if someone's been here and told you about it," said ranger Phillip Hill.

A number of reconstructed buildings on the abandoned streets are open to visitors, including the Allensworth Hotel, the Mary Dickinson Memorial Library, Singleton's General Store and Post Office and Allensworth's home.

On a tour of the retired lieutenant colonel's home, docent Ed Pope picks up a primer from Allensworth's desk and tells the story of the young slave who was taught to read by the son of his owner-something that was forbidden at the time. When the slave owner found out, Pope said, Allensworth was sold for $900.

Allensworth, who was born into slavery in 1842 in Louisville, Ky., later was a chaplain in the Army's all-black 24th Infantry in 1886. Upon his retirement in 1906, he was the highest-ranking African-American in the military.

It was while in retirement in Los Angeles that Allensworth formulated the plan for starting a colony for African-Americans who wanted to determine their own political destinies. With input from William Payne, a professor with a bachelor's degree in education, and others, Allensworth founded the community in 1908. The site was picked for its cheap land, abundant water that flowed from artesian wells and proximity to the main rail line linking San Francisco and Los Angeles.

On a recent weekday visit, some of the state park's most committed supporters gathered in the original Allensworth Elementary School. Herring said the school looks exactly as it did when she attended classes in 1914: rows of shiny wooden desks still sport inkwells, fountain pens, readers and folding tin cups. On the other side of the room is a wooden wagon wheel, farm tools and other remnants of days gone by.

"That's the tub we used to bathe in," Herring exclaimed, pointing to a worn metal basin.

Gesturing toward patches of empty land, the former resident pointed out the route she used to travel on horseback to fetch butter from a nearby dairy farm. "(The horse) looked like a Clydesdale, but was as gentle as anything, never batted an eye or shied from a jackrabbit," Herring said.

She rode the horse 13 miles with a pan of fresh butter poised on the horse's neck. "I wouldn't let him run or I'd lose the butter. That horse walked every step of the way."

Herring also recalled the excitement surrounding the birth of her sister-the first baby to be born in the town that changed its name from Soleto to Allensworth in 1908-who was aptly named Alwortha. In later years, her sister taught in the schoolhouse until her death in 1953.

But Allensworth's prosperity was short-lived. The main problem centered on the issue of water rights-new farmlands in nearby communities depleted and diverted water from the town. Eventually, an alternate system of irrigation and water transportation bypassed Allensworth.

In 1914, the community suffered a serious blow when Allensworth, traveling to El Monte to give a speech, was killed by a motorcyclist.